CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans to build a school in Heaton Park claim they have been snubbed during consultation on the scheme.

The Heaton Park Trust that looks after the interests of Heaton Park has been left off a list of groups invited to meet town hall officials to discuss the proposals.

Meetings have been arranged with other user groups as part of a consultation process promised after plans to relocate King David primary school to the Grade II listed park went public.

Those groups invited to take part in consultations have been told that group committees only may attend the consultation meetings rather than ordinary members.

Council officers are keen not to have angry confrontations with opponents of the plans as seen at public meetings since the secret proposals were first reported in The Advertiser.

Lawrence Van Reiss, chairman of the Heaton Park Trust, is furious that the organisation has been by-passed and has written to Manchester City Council's leisure services director Jim Byrne demanding that their voice is heard.

Mr Reiss said: "We were assured that full consultation would be undertaken and that we would be consulted in due course. We now find that other groups have had a two-hour presentation given to them by council officers when they have been shown the plans but we have had no contact. The council has broken its agreement."

David Blood of the Friends of Heaton Park, who have been consulted on the plans and maintain their opposition, said: "Virtually all user groups are against building the school. They didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know."

A city council spokesman said: "We have been meeting with park user groups to provide them with details of the King David proposals and give them the chance to question council officers directly.

"Our meetings with park user groups have been about ensuring they understand where things are up to. This was not a consultation, it was an information providing exercise, and the trust already have all the information which the user groups were given.

"There will be a full, detailed consultation once three pieces of work - a traffic impact assessment, a review of all the options and detailed designs for the school - have been produced. It is important to stress that the city council has not taken any decision to go ahead with these proposals."